The white crowfoot flowers that decorate the shoreline are a joy to holiday-home owners because they thrive in virtually the same conditions as swimmers: clear, bright water and a hard gravel or rocky base. Pond water crowfoot is a sign of clean water and it is usually first to disappear if the water starts to become enriched.

Pond water crowfoot is divided into two subspecies, ssp. peltatus, which grows on mainland Finland in clean water, and ssp. baudotii, which favours brackish water at the seaside. Ssp. peltatus grows in the large lakes of central Finland and also alongside big rivers, especially in the north of the country, and in moving water it doesn’t mind the water being a bit muddy. Crowfoot plants also grow in mildly salty brackish water, especially around estuaries and less salty inlets where rushes thrive. Ssp. baudotii requires a minimum of 2.5 promilles or salt to be able to survive. The muddiness of the water in the inner archipelago limits its growth; on the outer archipelago the surge of the sea forces the firmly anchored plant to seek shelter in inlets close to piers, jetties and wavebreakers. Plants that grow in rougher waters are more robust than those that are protected by the inner archipelago.

Common water crowfoot (R. aquatilis) which favours rich waters and ditches is a close relative of pond water crowfoot. Common water crowfoot has two variations, var. aquatilis and var. diffusus. Apart from these, two other crowfoots that grow in Finland in both sweet and brackish water are R. confervoides and fan-leaved water crowfoot (R. circinatus).